Casey wakes the next morning to find Blake’s rucksack packed on his bed, confirming he is leaving. She tells herself Nate is the correct choice and the safest, even if it hurts deeply. Nate enters and asks her to walk with him to retrieve his car, which he claims he left hidden a mile away. As they walk, Casey sees Blake and her father sharing an emotional goodbye hug.

Once inside the car, Nate makes drives away from the compound. When Casey questions him, Nate reveals they are leaving. He confesses he made a deal with the burners: in exchange for showing them the compound and helping them get inside, the burners agreed to let him and Casey go. The burners are likely entering the compound now. Enraged, Casey grabs the steering wheel and the two struggle. The car crashes into an oak tree, and everything goes dark.

Casey regains consciousness in the wreckage, her face embedded with glass shards. Nate is unconscious against the steering column. A walkie-talkie crackles to life, and a voice addresses Nate as “Dr. Warner,” thanking him for leaving the gate open and confirming the burners are approaching the compound now. The transmission ends. Casey tries the radio but cannot respond. She attempts to run back to the compound but her legs are severely bruised.

Nate awakens, visibly injured with a dislocated shoulder and a broken ankle. Casey tells him she is going to save her family. Nate mocks her, noting he was right to abandon her in Chicago and calling her “stupid.” As Casey turns to leave, Nate screams an insult about her soon-to-be-dead father. Furious, Casey spins around and throws a throwing star into Nate’s shoulder. She walks back, twists the blade, and rips it out. Nate spits blood at her and insists on being called “Dr. Warner.” Casey knees him in the forehead, smashing his head into the car’s bumper and leaving him unconscious and bleeding. She tosses the engagement ring into his lap. Hearing gunshots from the compound, Casey ignores her pain and sprints toward home at full speed.

Casey arrives at the compound to find the front gate smashed and dead bodies and vehicles scattered across the lawn. She moves stealthily through the woods along the fence line. Suddenly, she is yanked deeper into the trees. Her attacker is Tessa, who is hiding with a terrified Molly. The three women embrace. They explain that Greg was on watch in the sniper tower when two burners went up there and that they fled into the woods for safety when they heard gunfire.

Casey tells them Nate betrayed the compound to the burners to save himself. She adds that Nate is now either dead or dying. Resolved to fight back, Casey asks if they are ready to kill the attackers. When they question what weapons they have, Casey leads them to a secret location marked by grooves in tree bark. They uncover a hidden chest containing a large cache of guns, ammunition, knives, flashbangs, and explosives. Tessa and Molly stare in amazement at the arsenal. Casey asks if they can go save everyone now, and both women answer in unison with enthusiasm.

Casey, Tessa, and Molly arm themselves, and Casey gives Tessa the single grenade from the cache. She outlines a plan: eliminate patrols quietly, retake the sniper tower, then move on the main house. They are severely outnumbered but have the element of surprise. Casey silently kills a lone burner with a throwing star to the throat. Near the dummy house, they spot three more burners, and Tessa suggests using a distraction. Tessa finds a rock, and Casey hurls it through a window. When the burners turn toward the sound, Casey kills one with a throwing star while Tessa and Molly slash the throats of the other two.

Molly trembles after her first kill, but Casey motivates her by invoking Greg’s peril. Molly charges toward the sniper tower, and a shot narrowly misses her head. Casey pulls her to safety. They devise a new plan: Casey will use a corpse as a decoy while Tessa and Molly provide cover fire. After the sniper shoots the corpse, Casey makes a desperate sprint. The women run out of ammunition simultaneously, leaving Casey exposed. The sniper aims; Casey zigzags as a bullet grazes her ear, but she reaches the house. She ascends the tower stairs. The burner fires through a wall, giving away his position. After a fierce exchange of gunfire, Casey kills him.

Tessa and Molly rush in and find Greg tied up and unconscious but alive. Casey frees him. Once lucid, Greg wants to find his family, but Casey convinces him to stay and secure the tower with Molly. From the direction of the cabins, they hear a woman’s agonized scream followed by gunshots. Casey and Tessa enter the main house and find Elaine and Casey’s Aunt Julie tied up in the master bedroom. Julie has a bloody head wound. Tessa discovers her mother, Meredith, unconscious with a faint pulse. Elaine explains that Dale and Casey’s uncle, Jimmy, ran out shooting when the attack began. Tessa stays to protect the wounded women. Casey continues alone to the basement armory, where she hears two burners’ voices. She sees bloody handprints on a locked cell door. Casey kills one burner with a throwing star to the mouth and brutally kills the second after a violent struggle. Blake calls her name from inside the cell.

Casey finds Blake locked in the cell. His hands are bloody from smashing a burner’s face into the bars after the man threatened the women. Casey updates Blake on everyone’s status, revealing the Carter family has been killed. Blake’s face fills with dread. He tells Casey he overheard the guards saying Dale, her uncle Jimmy, and her cousin JJ were being forced to dig their own graves at the burn pit. Casey unlocks the cell, and they rearm in the armory before heading to the burn pit.

They find a handful of burners attacking their three allies. The lead burner, whose face is hideously disfigured, kicks Dale into a grave and prepares to burn him alive. Blake applies camouflage and disappears into the woods, then Casey opens fire, killing several with her submachine gun. They fight for several more minutes, with Blake stealthily killing a handful of burners and making his way to the graves.

The lead burner threatens to kill the three captives, forcing Blake and Casey to surrender. The leader recognizes Casey as the woman who disfigured him in Chicago. He offers a deal: if Blake burns the three captives, the leader will keep Casey alive for himself. To Casey’s horror, Blake seemingly agrees. As Blake approaches JJ with a gas canister, he gives a subtle coded message. Blake suddenly attacks, hitting the burner behind JJ with the canister. Simultaneously, Casey throws stars, killing one burner and wounding the leader. Blake kills the remaining guard, taking a bullet to his arm in the process. The leader recovers his gun and aims at Casey. Dale tries to grab the weapon, but the leader stomps on his hand and assaults him before turning the gun back on Casey. As the leader fires, Dale dives in front of the bullet, taking the shot meant for his daughter.

Casey screams and runs to her father’s side. The burner leader kicks the wounded Dale. Blake attacks, slicing the leader’s face open with his knife, peeling the flesh away. Blake shoves the horribly mutilated leader into a grave, and JJ pours gasoline on him, burning him alive. The leader’s agonized screams echo from the flames.

Casey and Blake try desperately to stop Dale’s bleeding, but the wound is fatal. Dale tells Casey she has already saved him. He apologizes for ruining her childhood but explains his purpose was to prepare her to start a new world, not just survive the end of the old one—reminding her that even if it “feels like the world has ended,” hers “doesn’t have to” (280). Casey tells him she loves him, and Dale says her mother would be “proud” of her. Dale asks Blake to take care of Casey, and Blake promises he will. Dale’s hand falls from Casey’s face and he dies, as Casey collapses onto his chest and cries.

Casey digs her father’s grave by herself under the apple tree where they used to eat lunch together. Her hands are blistered and raw, but she refuses help, knowing Dale would have wanted it this way. She reflects that her father prepared her for a new beginning, not merely an ending. As the sun sets, she finishes filling the grave and pats the soil flat.

Blake approaches with two ice cream Drumsticks that Dale had been saving, the same kind Casey and her father used to enjoy after long workdays. They sit together by the grave and eat the ice cream in silence. Blake puts his arm around Casey and tells her they are going to be okay, no matter “what the world throws at” them, and Casey agrees, saying her dad “made sure of that” (283). A tear falls from Blake’s eye. Casey leans in and kisses him, tasting the ice cream on his lips and solidifying their relationship as they face the future together.

Six months later, it is Greg and Molly’s wedding day. Molly wears Casey’s late mother’s wedding dress. The compound has thrived, taking in a dozen new survivors and building new cabins. They have improved their defenses and made successful scavenging runs, finding enough supplies to last years. Molly has a moment of sadness about her family not being present, but Casey comforts her, reminding her that the family they have chosen is also real and meaningful.

Outside, guests are seated in makeshift chairs. Aunt Julie stands ready to officiate. Blake and Casey, now a loving couple, tease each other as they prepare to walk down the aisle together.

The ceremony begins. Uncle Jimmy walks Molly down the aisle, and Greg cries tears of joy. Aunt Julie begins the traditional vows. As Casey looks out at the smiling crowd, she spots movement on the distant highway. A semi-truck slows to a stop. Several armed men climb onto the trailer, and one sets up a sniper rifle. Just as Aunt Julie asks if anyone has objections to the marriage, Casey realizes what is happening and screams for everyone to run. Bullets rip through the air, hitting the ground around them as the wedding party scatters.